I am thankful for...

I am thankful for Hyrum. This Thanksgiving was so wonderful because Hyrum was home. Last year we missed having our Daddy home for the holidays and it made this years festivities so much more meaningful.

I am thankful for my two boys who practiced their parts and participated perfectly in their classes Thanksgiving concerts.

Emerson with his class

Townsend with his class

I am thankful to Mother Nature for providing a few inches of fresh snow on Thanksgiving morning. The boys woke up around 6:30 AM and wanted to go outside and play in the snow. We told them they had to wait until the sun came up but as soon as it did (around 7:00 AM) they were outside! They played in the snow for almost 3 hours leaving our house relatively calm and quiet so we could prepare our Thanksgiving meal in peace!

Julian loved the snow. I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember snow from last year so it was really cute to watch him stomp around in the snow and have fun.

Our Thanksgiving feast. Hyrum told me the other day, "Rachelle, you are pretty lucky to have me cook for you." Yes, I know I'm lucky!!!!

After dinner we headed outside to build a snowman. Our friend Ian Campbell was over for dinner so he and Hyrum helped the boys roll those giant balls of snow. It turned out pretty good, don't you think?

I am thankful I live in Germany. It's so great to live here and get the chance to experience how another culture celebrates the holidays. The Christmas markets are officially open and we made our first trip to one the day after Thanksgiving. We went to Regensburg to the Thurn und Taxis castle and walked around the market they had set up in the castle gardens. It had a medieval theme and all the stalls sold hand made crafts. It was a pretty cold day but I'm glad we went and enjoyed the market.

Here we are at the market, all bundled up for the weather!

I am thankful for my family of hikers. Hyrum grew up hiking through the woods with his family. It has taken me many years to appreciate the pleasure of a good hike but I believe I have finally come around. Today we went up in the hills near our house where it had snowed even more than where we live and hiked around in the forest for a while. I have to admit is was wonderful and beautiful to be outside, even though it was pretty chilly. I love watching my boys explore the world around them.

Doesn't Julian look cozy in his sled?

The snow was really deep!

It was so beautiful with the trees covered in snow

Julian decided to walk on the way back to the car so the boys bummed a lift from Dad.

I am thankful for fun times with my family and a beautiful world to explore. We hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday.

Everyday Life

Lest you think all we do is travel and sight see I decided to dedicate a post to our everyday life. Townsend and Emerson joined Tiger Scouts this year. Daddy takes them to their meetings twice a month and I think the boys enjoy the time they get to spend with their Dad. They recently had a "rain gutter regatta." I missed out on this event because I was visiting Paige that weekend but Hyrum said the boys had fun.

Townsend concentrating on painting his boat for the "rain gutter regatta"

They had fun, I promise...even if Emerson looks sort of grumpy

Townsend's ship sets sail at the "rain gutter regatta"

My day starts at 6:30 AM when I get the boys up for school. They catch the bus at 7:10 AM and then Julian and I have to find something to do with our day. We usually clean up a bit around the house, do some laundry and watch some You Tube videos of Sesame Street. On most days we go shopping just for something to do. One particular day, on my way home from shopping, we past Burger King. Julian pointed to it from his car seat and said "bok, bok, bok" like a chicken. I guess maybe I go there too often to get him chicken fries but it is something to do to fill up our day:)

How cute is he?

For Veteran's Day the boys school put on a "Soldier of My Life" assembly. The boys got to wear their scout uniforms and stand up on the stage while the flag was brought in and then they led the school in the pledge of allegiance. It was pretty cute seeing all those boy scouts and girl scouts up on the stage. All of the soldiers that were there, mostly the parents of the students, were then invited to come up on the stage and then all the elementary school students sang patriotic songs for the soldiers. It was really cute. Some of the soldiers on stage were crying when the kids sang "Thank You To Our Soldiers."

Emerson on stage with his uniform

A friend from church works in the pharmacy at the clinic and every once in a while a package gets delivered with dry ice. He gave the ice to Hyrum and the boys had so much fun being mad scientists for the afternoon!

My two crazy scientists!

The weather is turning cold and rainy so we headed to Play Mobil Land to spend the day at the indoor play area. It's a real bargain during the winter season, only 2,50 Euro!

The boys hangin' around the indoor play place

So, my life isn't all about exploring Europe. We enjoy doing regular family type things here in Germany as well:)

Rome Trip Part III

OK, I promise this will be the final post about our trip to Italy! We drove the four hours from Rome to Sorrento encountering crazy traffic the entire time. I am so glad Hyrum was driving and not me!!! We got to our apartment rather late so Tuesday evening we just went right to bed.

Day 6: Julian is usually the first one up when we are on vacation and Hyrum is always so great to take him for a walk in the stroller and let the rest of us sleep. The plus side of this is that Hyrum always knows his way around the town we are staying in because of his morning walks with Julian. He found the grocery store, a yummy bakery and the town center...all of which came in handy while we stayed in Sorrento.

We walked around a bit in the town of Sorrento but our main goal for this day was a trip to the island of Capri. We hopped on the ferry boat in Sorrento and enjoyed the 45 minute trip across the Bay of Naples. Once in Capri we took a bus (once again a life threatening experience!) to the town of Anacapri. From this town we decided to take the chairlift up to the top of Monte Solaro. This was a one person at a time sort of chair and the boys weren't allowed to go up by themselves so I took Townsend while Hyrum hung out in the town with Emerson and then we switched. It wasn't ideal to split up like this for 2 hours but the view from the top was simply amazing and I'm really glad we did. After our adventure we took a bus to Capri Town and walked around a bit and enjoyed window shopping around the very expensive boutiques. We took the funicular back to the boat dock but had just missed a ferry so we had 45 minutes to wait. Lucky for us we were right next to the water so the time flew by as the boys played in the waves and threw rocks and sticks in the sea. What a wonderful way to end a fun day!

A view from Sorrento

The boys bought these swords in Rome with money they had saved up. It was great they had something to do while we waited for things...like the ferry boat. I love Emerson's pose in this photo, what a crazy boy:)

Our ferry boat trip to Capri

Townsend and I 1,900 feet up at the top of Monte Solaro. You could see around the entire island of Capri as well as across the Bay of Naples to the big city of Naples and we could even see Mt. Vesuvius looming in the distance.

Family photo in Anacapri

The boys by the water waiting for the ferry to take us back to Sorrento

Playing "chicken" with the waves and throwing rocks in the water

Julian LOVES water. It was all we could do to try and keep this little man dry:)

I like this picture because it reminds me of how dogs stick their heads out of the window of a car. The boys loved the trip back to Sorrento and, as you can tell, loved the fresh cool air from the sea.

Day 7: While in southern Italy we had to visit the ruined city of Pompeii. I wrote a report on Pompeii when I was in 8th grade and the whole time I was walking around I kept thinking, I would have never dreamed in 8th grade that I would actually get the chance to visit this city. It really was amazing. To realize the buildings and frescoes and tile floors were created 2,000 years ago is mind boggling. I mean, Christ was around when Pompeii was prosperous...how cool is that? The boys once again loved exploring all the ruined houses. They looked at the city as one giant maze that needed to be solved and they were determined to look in every corner and through every door.

The streets of Pompeii were flooded every morning to wash away the grime of the city. These stones were placed as crosswalks for pedestrians when the streets were wet. The boys loved these stones and hopped across each set we came upon.

Some of the victims of Mt. Vesuvius's eruption were preserved in the moment of death. These casts were simply amazing to see, to imagine what their final moments and thoughts were before the ash engulfed them completely.

Food vendors would display and sell their food in bowls which they placed in the holes on these counters, sort of an ancient type of fast food...would you like fries with that?

The frescoes were probably the most fantastic part of Pompeii. To see something that old completely preserved was wonderful and awe inspiring.

After Pompeii we headed over to Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano whose ashes and pyroclastic flow sealed and preserved Pompeii so wonderfully. It was a short hike to the top of the volcano where we could look down into the crater and ooh and ahh over the steam rising up from the center.

Daddy, Townsend and Julian at the top of Mt. Vesuvius

Can you see the steam rising from the crater?

Family photo on top of Mt. Vesuvius. The boys kept hoping they would see lava flowing out of the volcano but we just weren't that "lucky" I guess!

Day 8: We packed up and made the four hour drive back to Rome to drop off our car and catch our airplane. What a fun and memorable vacation but at the same time we were happy to be on our way home. Thanks for the memories Italy!

At the airport, all tired out and ready to go home:)

Rome Trip Part II

Day 4: We found that Rome is divided into three main attractions. 1) Ancient Rome 2) Baroque Rome and 3) Papal Rome. Saturday we did Ancient Rome, Sunday we visited Baroque Rome and so Monday we headed off to explore the cradle of Catholicism. We started with St. Peter's Basilica. What a beautiful church. To stand in the square and be surrounded by sculpture, fountains, architecture and to be enveloped by the immensity of it all was simply amazing. We decided to climb up St. Peter's dome before the kids got too worn out...537 steps will wear even grown ups out! The boys loved going up the stairs. You start off with a fairly large stairway and by the time you are almost to the top you are winding around a very narrow metal spiral staircase with just a rope to hang onto. I have to give a shout out to Hyrum who carried Julian up the entire way!

A view from St. Peter's square

Hyrum hiking up the stairs with little man Jules

The view of St. Peter's square from the very top of the Dome.

After enjoying the view from the top we headed down all those stairs and walked around St. Peter's church. This is by far the largest church I have ever been in. You walk in and are completely amazed by the sheer size of this place. Of course we stopped for a moment to enjoy Michelangelo's Pieta and we saw Bernini's High Alter. The alabaster window which is the focus of the apse was amazing. Bernini was so talented in so many different ways!

Bernini's window

Even though our guide book told us not to attempt this with children, we headed from St. Peter's right to the Vatican museum. Fortunately for us we had reserved tickets online the night before and so we were able to avoid the 2 plus hour wait in line! We knew this museum would pose a challenge for our young children, there is just so much to see that it could take hours. What we decided was to tackle just the main attractions. For us this meant the Egyptian mummy, the Raphael rooms and the Sistine chapel. To get from one place to another we had the boys hold our hands and we would "fast forward" through the crowds. They loved weaving in and out of all the tourists as we rushed to our next exhibit. We were in and out of the Vatican museum in 45 minutes...pretty amazing! Of course we will have to come back at some future date when the kids can appreciate all this museum has to offer but for now I am so pleased we got to see the main attractions.

The Laocoon sculpture, not exactly on our list to see but still amazing to see in person this item that I had studied so much about in Humanities...plus it was on our way to the Egyptian mummy:)

I really don't know why my boys love skeletons and mummies, maybe all boys do, but they sure were enthralled by this person.

Raphael's School of Athens. Another amazing piece of art history.

And finally we fast forwarded our way to the Sistine chapel. When you stop to remember that this whole ceiling was painted by one man AND that he had to lay on his back the entire time AND he couldn't see the big picture from the tiny spot where he lay...this is truly amazing!

Family photo op with St. Peter's in the background.

After taking the boys through St. Peter's and the Vatican museum we needed a bit of R &R so we headed to a nearby garden and let the boys throw rocks and sticks into the Tiber river. As long as there is water nearby Julian is happy:)

Townsend sleeping on the floor of the bus sums up exactly how the boys were feeling by the end of this day!

Day 5: After the long day we had on Monday we decided to narrow Tuesday down to 2 main sites. The Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The day started off pretty crummy, pouring down rain and cold. We finally got wet enough to buy umbrellas off a street vendor and then five minutes later the rain stopped and the sun came out!

The Pantheon. It was actually kind of cool to stand inside the Pantheon with rain pouring in through the oculus. The Pantheon is Rome's only remaining intact building from ancient times.

We truly needed this hot cocoa break, we were all wet and chilled to the bone.

On our walk from the Pantheon to Piazza Navona we stopped quickly in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi for another Caravaggio treat, The Calling of St. Matthew.

As you can tell the sun came out and made our final moments in Rome fabulous. We stayed in Piazza Navona for a few hours just eating pizza, gelato and pastries. Our boys loved chasing the pigeons and tempting the birds with pizza crust until there was a hoard of about 20 birds the boys could then run through. I enjoyed walking around the piazza and seeing all the artists and musicians. This piazza is famous for the Bernini fountain The Four Rivers, once again an amazing sculpture.

From Piazza Navona we walked to the central train station in Rome where we picked up our rental car and headed south to Sorrento, but we'll save that for another post.